SCOTUS to the Citizens of The United States

Supreme Court of the United States TO the Citizens of the once great nation of The United States of America… screw you!

And with their EPA ruling today, they have said screw you to every human on the planet.

May God have mercy on our souls with this joke of a partisan court.

Hey Lauren Boebert, What about MY church?

Just to get everyone on the same page the First Amendment to the US Constitution reads as follows:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Lauren Boebert, the POS Representative from Colorado’s 3rd District , recently made the following statement:

“The church is supposed to direct the government, the government is not supposed to direct the church.”

“I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk. This is not in the Constitution, it was in a stinking letter and it means nothing like what they say it does…”   

For one of the many articles Continue reading “Hey Lauren Boebert, What about MY church?”

Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #7,459

yeah I know you did not ask!

I am going to start selling burkas online.  This item of dress is about to become de rigueur in this country.

I read the headline today about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade and I had the same feeling I had seeing the planes crash into the Twin Towers in NYC.  The world has gone absolutely mad and  fanatics are in charge.  I am sick in my stomach and sick in my soul.

IMHO every justice that voted for this should be charged as an accomplice for the death of every woman who dies from a back alley abortion.

I cannot think of time I have been more disgusted by the situation in this country.  The religious zealots, gun nuts and white supremacist have gained control of this country I once loved.

I am absolutely disgusted with the Supreme Court of this country. Between expanding of gun rights, overturning Roe v. Wade and declaring money to be free speech in politics they have sent this country over the cliff. And the saddest part is that they are not “practicing” law but partisan politics.   That is not the function of the Supreme Court.

I going to say it again… please Dear God, save us from the religious.

Please Dear God No… Do not send Eric Greitens to the United States Senate

Eric Greitens is running for the United States Senate from the state of Missouri.  He was briefly Governor of Missouri, but he was chased out of office.  He resigned amid allegations of sexual assault and campaign finance impropriety.  As the Washington Post put it:

“Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens left the state capitol in disgrace as he faced down two criminal charges, an ethics probe, and public fallout over reports that he’d had an affair with a hairdresser and then allegedly tried to blackmail her with nude photos.”

Somehow he managed to get much of that dismissed…

Just in case you do not know, RINO stands for Republican In Name Only aka Republican politicians that are  not Trump supporters, that are not MAGA enough.  The message of this video is abundantly clear, that MAGAs should hunt these folks down, and apparently with military grade weapons.

For the sake of me, I do know understand why this type of ad is legal, why any TV station would air it, and why YouTube does not take it down.  IMHO, if one of these”RINOs” is murdered or even assaulted, Eric Greitens should be charged as an accomplice.

Please God No… Do not send Eric Greitens to the United States Senate.

Just for the record I did report this video to YouTube as promoting terrorism.  I pray many folks follow suite.


Thank you YouTube to listening to many, many folks and taking this awful video down from your site.

Bat Sh** Crazy, Texas Republican Party Platform

A prominent historian, Heather Cox Richardson, puts out a daily newsletter, Letters from America, described as ” A newsletter about the history behind today’s politics.”

She had multiple themes today, much it about the January 6 hearings going in our national’s capital.  A couple things really caught my attention, one was a quote from a very conservative federal judge that he uttered during an NPR interview:

“[T]he former president and his party are today a clear and present danger for American democracy,”  Luttig reiterated to NPR’s All Things Considered.

And this gentleman is Continue reading “Bat Sh** Crazy, Texas Republican Party Platform”

Barry Goldwater Quotes Highlighting Changed Republican Party

A friend of mine sent me some Barry Goldwater quotes that are timely for our current political situation.

Unless you are of a certain age, or are a student of American history you may not know who Barry Goldwater was.  He was a five term senator from Arizona and ran on the Republican ticket for President in 1964 against Lyndon B.  Johnson.  He scared the bejeebers out of a lot people with his hawkish position on the Vietnam War and extreme right wing positions. He lost in a landslide.

While a Republican, he was very much to the right of most of the run-of-mill Republicans.  He was considered an extreme right-winger, an ultra-conservative.

All of which make the follow Barry Goldwater quotes very interesting as they reflect the opinion of one of the most conservative members of the Republican Party in the 1960s.  The MAGAs would ride him out of town on a rail today, if he said such things.

“Abortion is “a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the religious right. It’s not a conservative issue at all.” 

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”  

Well the preachers did get control of the Republican Party, quickly followed by the crazies.  Now we are all paying the price.

But then there is this quote which to my mind undoes it all.

“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” 

Oh well.

And so it went back in the 60s.

 

The Sin of Simony         

Years ago I read Dante’s Divine Comedy.  I cannot say I got much out of it, but I did get through the poem, mostly  because I can be a little obsessive at times. I had put a task before me, and by George I was going to complete it. Most of what I remember from the poem are some very graphic images from the nine levels of Inferno, and almost nothing of Purgatorio and Paradiso.  I decided somewhat later that I would listen Continue reading “The Sin of Simony         “

Ghost Guns… Why are they legal?

Color me sheltered, I had no idea.  These are deadly weapons that anyone can buy online.  They are unregulated,  no serial numbers, untraceable, anyone – and I mean anyone with a credit card or PayPal account can buy one online.  I am betting an untraceable Visa/Mastercard gift cards would work just fine too.  Wow! This is so very WRONG.  Now here is something I would classify as sinful, the marketing of such merchandise.  What is the lowest level in Dante’s Inferno?

More information available at BradyUnited.org

Maus by Art Spiegelman

  Graphic novels are not something I typically read. The closest I have come as an adult would be several books compiling the work of various newspaper cartoonists.  What piqued my curiosity on this book is that a school board in Tennessee banned this book from the eighth grade curriculum. While a graphic novel, honors received include: The Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship and National Book Critics Circle Award. The New Yorker called it “the first masterpiece in comic book history.” The very conservative Wall Street Journal described it as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust.”

This is not an easy book to read due to the theme.  It deals with the treatment of the Jews in Poland by the Germans and Poles at the beginning of the World War II.  The main character and his wife end up at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Partly through ingenuity, but mostly Continue reading “Maus by Art Spiegelman”

A Polemic – Which Is the Greater Sin?

I really do not believe in the concept of sin, at least in sin as defined in the Christian Bible.  The idea that there is a god that will condemn the soul of one of his creations to burn in the fires of hell for all eternity for some behavior during their all too short life span is more than I can give credence to. But then I also do not believe in the concept of heaven or hell.  I have no idea if we have a soul or not, the rational part of me believes that death is simply the extinguishing of a light, no big deal.

However, I do believe that there are any number of human behaviors and actions that can be classified as “sins”. For me a sin is any action or behavior that damages another being either physically, mentally or emotionally.  I would also put into the definition harming the environment, the planet, the overuse of resources, basically any unethical behavior that reaches Continue reading “A Polemic – Which Is the Greater Sin?”